Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of information handling system docking, and more particularly to information handling system docking with coordinated power and data communications.
Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information between and across devices continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Information handling systems perform a large number of functions for both individuals and for business use. Generally, information handling systems perform these functions by executing applications stored in local memory that create or alter information stored locally and at networked locations. As an example, enterprises typically have a data center that includes centralized storage of information and one or more server information handling systems that provide the information to client information handling systems through a network. In a conventional office environment, employees have work areas with a dedicated desktop information handling system that executes word processing, spreadsheet, web browsing and e-mail applications and connectivity to peripheral devices and platforms, that also may generate or consume data, so that employees can perform enterprise duties. Generally, each work area has a dedicated local area network Ethernet interface to provide the desktop information handling system with communication to the data center. In addition, each area includes dedicated and/or shared peripherals, such as a display, keyboard, mouse and shared networked printer. Often home office environments have a similar configuration built around a router or modem that provides Internet access and peripheral sharing instead of around a data center and server information handling system.
This conventional work area configuration makes sense for employees who work only in the work area during working hours, however, a growing number of employees work in less-conventional arrangements. For instance, many enterprises have adopted home office policies that allow employees to work from home on certain days or under certain circumstances. Generally, such employees are provided with a portable information handling system to perform enterprise duties. As the expense associated with such portable systems has decreased over time, enterprises have made portable systems available to a greater number of employees so that employees have the improved productivity generally provided by improved access to enterprise information. In addition, employees have generally taken advantage of the decreased cost of portable information handling systems by purchasing systems for personal use. One common example of portable information handling systems often purchased for personal use by employees is the smartphone, which allows employees to make phone calls, communicate by text and e-mail, and browse the Internet through personal wireless wide area network (WWAN) telephone accounts or Internet hotspots.
Although portable information handling systems provide end users with increased convenience in the accessing of information outside of a work space, portable information handling systems tend to have less convenient input/output interfaces. For example, portable information handling systems tend to have smaller displays than are provided by a desktop system display peripheral and integrated keyboards with smaller and/or less ergonomic key configurations. In the case of tablet information handling systems, such as smartphones, the integrated keyboard is typically a virtual keyboard presented on a touchscreen, which generally does not provide an efficient interface for end users to make inputs. Often, end users will interface with smartphones and other tablet information handling systems by using peripheral devices, such as wireless keyboards and mice; however, the convenience of using a portable information handling system is diminished where an end user has to carry around peripheral devices and set up the portable system to interact with the peripheral devices.
One conventional solution that helps make portable information handling systems more effective tools in a work space is a docking station that interfaces the portable information handling system with the work space resources. Conventional docking stations typically include a specialized connector that couples to a portable information handling system to provide direct system access for peripherals connected with the docking station. For example, a docking station with a specialized connector is placed in a work space on a desktop and then interfaced with work space peripherals. The docking station might, for instance, include: a DisplayPort port that couples the dock through a DisplayPort cable to a conventional display; USB ports that couple the dock through USB cables to a keyboard, mouse and printer; an Ethernet port that couples the dock to a local area network (LAN); and a power cable that accepts AC power and an adapter that converts the AC power to DC power. A portable information handling system has a specialized port in its bottom surface that accepts the docking station connector in a fixed position on the desktop. The specialized port interfaces at a motherboard level with components of the portable information handling system so that an end user, in effect, couples separately to each of the peripherals through one docking station connector as if the end user had directly interfaced each peripheral to a port of the portable information handling system.
The advantage offered by a conventional docking station is that an end user can effectively turn a portable information handling system with limited I/O capabilities into a desktop system with multiple peripherals by simply placing the portable system into the docking station. A disadvantage of conventional docking stations is that the addition of a specialized docking port and direct motherboard connections increases the design and fabrication costs for the portable information handling system as well as the size of the portable system. It also limits the type of client device that connects/docks with the docking platform. One alternative is to interface a docking station with a standardized port of the information handling system, such as a USB port. A disadvantage of this type of docking station interface is that peripheral information can exceed the bandwidth available through the standardized port. Further, using the peripheral port protocol to communicate with the docking station tends to introduce latency due to translation between native and port protocols. Some of the bandwidth limitations are addressed by using wireless interfaces for some peripherals, such as Bluetooth to interface a portable system with a keyboard; however, using multiple interfaces tends to defeat the simplicity associated with a docking station having a single interface.